Renewables

31st December 2016

CONSERVATIONISTS have teamed up with the green energy industry to demand the Scottish Government sets a new target to ensure half the country’s power comes from renewables by 2030. WWF Scotland and Scottish Renewables made the call following what they believe has been a “landmark” year for Scottish renewable energy thanks to world firsts, record setting and innovation. Among the milestone achievements in 2016 were the creation of the world’s first fully operational array of tidal power turbines off Shetland and plans for kite power stations and floating wind farms. WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said: “2016 was without doubt a landmark year for renewables in Scotland, with several world firsts achieved, new records set, and amazing innovation shown.”

WIND farms could become more efficient after a breakthrough by scientists. New insights into the fluctuations of wind energy have been discovered. The amount of energy generated by renewables fluctuate. On particularly windy days, for example, surges in power generated by wind turbines have been known to overwhelm the electrical grid, causing power outages. Dealing with the peaks and troughs of intermittent renewable energy will become increasingly challenging as governments try to phase out of more stable coal-powered energy sources. But now Professor Mahesh Bandi, head of the collective interactions unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Japan, has used experimental wind plant data to explain the statistical nature of these fluctuations. The study published in Physical Review Letters said wind speed patterns can be depicted as a spectrum on a graph. In the past, some scientists have argued that the power produced by geographically dispersed wind turbines in windy and calm locations at any one point in time will average out when they reach a centralised grid. But Mr Bandi’s findings show that this phenomenon, known as “geographic smoothing”, only works to a certain extent. A surge in power at one wind turbine plant will coincide with the surge at a far-away plant within the same long time-scale eddy, meaning that the power they provide for the grid cannot be averaged out. Mr Bandi said: “Understanding the nature of fluctuations in wind turbine power has immediate implications for economic and political decision making.”

Clients have included Greenpeace, Nuclear Free Local Authorities, WWF Scotland and the UK Government’s Committee on Radioactive Waste Management.

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